Buzaid- Anchor Baby

In Tim Burton’s short story, “Anchor Baby” there are three Carl Jung related archetypes present. The first Jungian archetype is the idea of the shadow. The beautiful girl who comes from the sea onto land, in search of a man named Walter, is much like a shadow.

            “But throughout all their lives

They never connected.

She wandered the earth

Alone and rejected.”

She lingers the earth trying to make a connection with a man whom she want to be with. Like a shadow trying to catch up, but always falling behind, her attempts to join herself and Walker together fail. It is until the idea of having a child to “anchor their spirits” that Walter and the beautiful girl are joined. This then leads into the second Jungian archetype. Walker can be seen as the quisling or rather the trader. After the two have their “ugly and gloomy” anchor baby, Walker seems to move on from it all and ignore the child and beautiful girl.

               “So Walker took off

               To play with the band.

               And from that day on,

               He stayed mainly on land.”

Abandoning his somewhat of a child and, what we consider to be, his lover. In addition, we can assumed the anchor baby to be the third Jungian archetype.

               “And she was alone

               With her gray baby anchor,

               Who got so oppressive

               That it eventually sank her.”

This applies to the idea that the anchor baby is like the jester archetype, for bringing knowledge and realizations to her mother. The anchor baby can represent abandonment, reminding her beautiful mother that she was left alone in the ocean with the weight of a child to deal with. In effect, leaving the beautiful mother feel unfulfilled and wasted. This short story only further illustrates Tim Burton’s everlasting grudge on his own abandonment.  The idea of a dysfunctional family fits well with this story. A father, who entered the situation with a “hit it and quit it” mentality. A mother, who started out as a young beautiful woman just looking for love, but in turn ended up an unhappy mother. A child, who feels that they are cause of all problems, the reason for their mothers despair, as well as the reason for their father’s absence. Together the characters create a dark, depressing story.